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Something worth noting about Pope's first year: Amari Williams

K

KYAnywhereEverywhere

Junior
Oct 13, 2025
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Pope owes a huge debt of gratitude to Amari Williams. I think we underappreciated just how uniquely talented Amari was. Amari was the key in making the offense look special. He was effectively a point center that a lot of teams just didn't have an answer for. He was able to confuse defenses. He acted as a second distributor. He was able to take over ball handling duties when we were limited on guard play due to injuries. Without Amari, Pope's first year wouldn't have been as successful. Pope may not even be here for a third year if not for Amari.

Speaking of that first year, Butler, Oweh, Brea, and Williams were all kind of uniquely special for what they brought to that team to make them so fluid and effective on offense.
 
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Catastic5

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Sep 12, 2026
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The “positives” of the first season (because there were a lot of negatives as well) are starting to look like a bit of a fluke. I guess we’ll see if we play better in future games; but I’m seeing a whole lot of the same problems from that exhibition that we had last year. Namely the scoring droughts is worrying me.
 
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S

ScWildcat3

All-Conference
Sep 27, 2005
1,368
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KYAnywhereEverywhere said:
Pope owes a huge debt of gratitude to Amari Williams. I think we underappreciated just how uniquely talented Amari was. Amari was the key in making the offense look special. He was effectively a point center that a lot of teams just didn't have an answer for. He was able to confuse defenses. He acted as a second distributor. He was able to take over ball handling duties when we were limited on guard play due to injuries. Without Amari, Pope's first year wouldn't have been as successful. Pope may not even be here for a third year if not for Amari.

Speaking of that first year, Butler, Oweh, Brea, and Williams were all kind of uniquely special for what they brought to that team to make them so fluid and effective on offense.
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So pope should get zero credit for identifying him and recruiting him for his offense? Also developing him into a NBA player.
 
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K

KYAnywhereEverywhere

Junior
Oct 13, 2025
235
387
63
gbl97 said:
Amari was a good passer, but he was giving Isaiah Jackson on offense around the rim.
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Low post anchoring wasn't his value though. His value was as a ball handler and distributer, doing it with a body type and from a position where it's normally not done, causing defenses havock and making that offense look smooth. He was an oddity that other teams wouldn't see at any other point in the season.
 
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jeffky

All-American
Sep 22, 2017
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KYAnywhereEverywhere said:
Pope owes a huge debt of gratitude to Amari Williams. I think we underappreciated just how uniquely talented Amari was. Amari was the key in making the offense look special. He was effectively a point center that a lot of teams just didn't have an answer for. He was able to confuse defenses. He acted as a second distributor. He was able to take over ball handling duties when we were limited on guard play due to injuries. Without Amari, Pope's first year wouldn't have been as successful. Pope may not even be here for a third year if not for Amari.

Speaking of that first year, Butler, Oweh, Brea, and Williams were all kind of uniquely special for what they brought to that team to make them so fluid and effective on offense.
Click to expand...
Basketball after that HUGE GIGANTIC WIN IN NORMAN LAST NIGHT BOWL ELIGIBLE AFTER 7 GAMES # 1 IN THE SEC AND YOU BRING UP AMARI WILLIAMS AND POPE "COME ON MAN GET WITH IT" STAY FOCUS
Will Ferrell GIF
 
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U

UKCowboys

Heisman
Oct 14, 2019
5,352
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KYAnywhereEverywhere said:
Pope owes a huge debt of gratitude to Amari Williams. I think we underappreciated just how uniquely talented Amari was. Amari was the key in making the offense look special. He was effectively a point center that a lot of teams just didn't have an answer for. He was able to confuse defenses. He acted as a second distributor. He was able to take over ball handling duties when we were limited on guard play due to injuries. Without Amari, Pope's first year wouldn't have been as successful. Pope may not even be here for a third year if not for Amari.

Speaking of that first year, Butler, Oweh, Brea, and Williams were all kind of uniquely special for what they brought to that team to make them so fluid and effective on offense.
Click to expand...
Or....Pope deserves credit for recruiting Amari. You can't have it both ways. If you bash him for not getting certain players you can't say he got lucky bringing someone in.
 
S

Smeegs

All-Conference
Nov 19, 2025
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ScWildcat3 said:
So pope should get zero credit for identifying him and recruiting him for his offense? Also developing him into a NBA player.
Click to expand...
Seems like in every thread you post in I see you trying to pick some inane nitpicky little fight with someone. The OP wasn’t trying to criticize Pope, he was just praising Amari. But you still try to spin a positive post into a negative one.

You come across like someone who must be a bitter person in real life.
 
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Ash Williams

Ash Williams

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Aug 3, 2022
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Smeegs said:
Seems like in every thread you post in I see you trying to pick some inane nitpicky little fight with someone. The OP wasn’t trying to criticize Pope, he was just praising Amari. But you still try to spin a positive post into a negative one.

You come across like someone who must be a bitter person in real life.
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He's a member of kyjeff's little Pope taliband.
 
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S

ScWildcat3

All-Conference
Sep 27, 2005
1,368
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113
Smeegs said:
Seems like in every thread you post in I see you trying to pick some inane nitpicky little fight with someone. The OP wasn’t trying to criticize Pope, he was just praising Amari. But you still try to spin a positive post into a negative one.

You come across like someone who must be a bitter person in real life.
Click to expand...
The OP was literally saying pope should be happy that Amari basically saved him. Said if not for Amari pope wouldn’t be here a 3rd year. So zero credit to pope for finding and recruiting Amari. Also helping make Amari a NBA type player. I can’t help it you jump in and can’t comprehend.
 
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